I was in the city centre last night, at the fringe of the disturbances.
I had been eating in an Ethiopian restaurant very close to the southside of O'Connell Bridge and at around 8.15pm we were suddenly asked to leave because the restaurant was shutting due to safety concerns.
Staff told us rioters were at the Immigration building on Burgh Quay, just behind us. As we left the air was heavy with smoke and noxious fumes. At O’Connell Bridge there was a vehicle on fire and a line of armoured gardaí were pushing people back.
We, along with many other people, got inadvertently caught up in this. We were pushed back down Burgh Quay by the Garda Public Order Unit, away from the junction at the bridge.
There were many people around, mostly young people on a night out or young workers stuck in the city centre because public transport had stopped. Very many of them were people of colour. There were also groups of young white Irish men and teens milling about. They seemed excited by the atmosphere.
"We have had years and years of under-investment in areas like the northwest inner city and now there are insidious forces looking to harness the disaffection."
We made our way around by Hawkins Street. There was another vehicle in flames on D’Olier Street. At the corner there was an ambulance and paramedics attending a person lying on the ground who appeared to be having some kind of a fit.
Despite this, and the flames and the smoke and the awful fumes, the atmosphere was not menacing at all. Among most bystanders there was a mixture of curiosity and some shock. People, including black people and other people of colour, were standing outside bars or just trying to get home, and there was no sense of threat at all to our, or to their, personal safety.
We walked through the city centre along College Green and along Dame Street and onwards. The footpaths were thronged with mostly young people, stranded at bus stops, buried in their phones, clearly attempting to figure out how to get home. There was no public transport and there did not seem to be any taxis either.
Lots of people were walking out of the city. We passed some small groups of young male teens, some on bikes, heading in the opposite direction, into the city centre.
At the Luas stops some young people were still waiting, hoping in vain for transport home. People were being kind and helpful and considerate towards each other.
Looking at the reports on media and social media last night it seems there were sinister attempts to use the appalling and tragic attack that occurred earlier to whip up disturbance and hate.
From early yesterday afternoon, a message about the tragic lunchtime attack began to circulate on local WhatsApp groups. It contained highly inflammatory misinformation as to the consequences of the attack.
"How come the tinder is there ready to ignite so quickly?"
The principal of a north inner city Dublin boys’ school was among those who received this message. He has little doubt about the intent behind this message. It was designed to inflame.
"We have had years and years of under-investment in areas like the northwest inner city and now there are insidious forces looking to harness the disaffection that is there among some young people and their parents and to direct it towards splinter issues, such as racist issues," this principal says. "These people are not from these areas but they blow the dog whistles."
He says for families and areas that have endured generations of under-investment Covid "poured fuel on to a lot of the issues that were there beforehand".
About what should happen now he says: "It is very tempting to take a hellfire and brimstone view of this but how many of the people there were actively involved in the anti-social behaviour or verbal or physical violence and how many were there watching because it is a drama and it is exciting?
"This is what we get with teenagers, who perhaps don’t realise that their presence is adding to the sense that this has a greater volume of support than it actually has.
"It is easy and tempting to put this into an 'us and them’ dynamic but it is more complex than that," he added.
He questions how the tragic Parnell Square attack was "so quickly turned into an anti-law enforcement and anti-foreigner protest".
"How come the tinder is there ready to ignite so quickly?"
He puts it down to chronic generational under-investment in areas around the northwest inner city, including a lack of safe recreational spaces for young people, all of which he says has led to ingrained disadvantage and marginalisation.
The school this principal works in has many students who come from immigrant backgrounds. This morning's attendance was way down as many parents who are people of colour (POC) have made the decision not to send their children walking through the city this morning.
"We have been taking calls from parents all morning. It is because they are fearful that their children might be attacked. They say they don’t know who is walking the streets this morning."
